Why is Easter on a different date every year?
EASTER is an important date in the calendar for many.
However, unlike Christmas which reliably falls on the same date each year, Easter hops around – and here’s why.
Why is Easter on a different date every year?
The holiday can occur on any Sunday between March 22 and April 25.
The date is decided by a complex set of calculations based on observations of the moon – meaning it is different every year.
In early Christianity, different churches used different methods, leading to disagreements which remain unresolved centuries later.
Eastern and Western churches continue to celebrate Easter according to different calendars – although sometimes by chance the festivals coincide.
In the last 10 years, this is when Easter was celebrated:
- April 8, 2012
- March 31, 2013
- April 20, 2014
- April 5, 2015
- March 27, 2016
- April 16, 2017
- April 1, 2018
- April 21, 2019
- April 12, 2020
- April 4, 2021
- April 17, 2022
This year’s Easter celebrations will take place on Sunday, April 9.
The last time Easter occurred on the earliest possible date, March 22, was in 1818.
The next time won’t be until 2285.
How is the Easter date worked out?
Since early Christian times, several methods have been used to work out the date of Easter.
In Western Christianity, Easter Sunday must always follow the first full moon after the spring equinox.
In 2023 the spring equinox was on Sunday, March 20, with the next full moon – the paschal full moon – taking place on Saturday, April 6.
Easter Day is the first Sunday after the paschal full moon, which means it will fall on Sunday, April 9.
Easter is always celebrated near the Jewish festival of Passover as the Bible says the death and resurrection of Jesus happened around this time.
Passover typically begins on the night of the first full moon after the spring equinox, except in “leap months” when it is the second full moon, as in 2016.
The “paschal full moon” – from the Aramaic for Passover – is the one that falls on or after the spring equinox.
Do churches celebrate Easter on different days?
In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII replaced the Roman calendar with the more accurate Gregorian calendar – and determining the date of Easter became a bit more complicated.
Easter was first calculated using the Gregorian calendar in the UK in 1753, with Catholic and western Christians still using the it to determine the date of Easter.
Some Orthodox churches, however, celebrate Easter Day on a different date as they still use the Roman calendar – started by Julius Caesar – and a different moon to calculate from.